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House to vote this week on major changes to 2010 Wall Street reforms

The House will vote in coming days on a wide ranging GOP plan to repeal and change a series of financial reforms approved by Congress in the aftermath of the 2008 Wall Street collapse, as Republicans argue the changes will remove excessive regulations and allow new financial growth in the United States.

The reforms include major financial changes, like ending the Volcker Rule, which placed limits on investments that financial institutions can make; the plan would also end any taxpayer bailouts of banks and other financial companies which have been deemed ‘too big to fail.’

Critics of the plan say it is mainly an effort to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau approved by President Obama, and limit its ability to rein in anti-consumer financial practices.

No matter where you stand, the GOP bill – dubbed the “Financial Choice Act” – is one of the more complicated pieces of legislation to come before the Congress in recent years:

+ The explanatory report language is over 2,000 pages – so large, that it was divided into two separate “books” for printing. (Book 1) and (Book 2).

Knowing full well that most of my readers – and pretty much every member of Congress – won’t read this bill in its entirety, here are some highlights that might not make the headlines:

1. Requires Congress to vote on major financial rules. The bill says if a rule from a federal financial agency has more than a $100 million economic impact, then Congress can vote to block that plan. It also allows rejection of ‘non-major rules.’

2. Congress to Judges: Drop Dead. In several provisions of the bill, the plan tells the courts to butt out, specifically saying that certain items are not subject to judicial review. §335 specifically says: “Provides that determinations, findings, actions, or omissions under Subtitle B are not subject to judicial review.”

3. Ends federal authority over “small-dollar loans.” §733 is pretty straightforward – saying the feds “may not exercise any rulemaking, enforcement, or other authority with respect to payday loans, vehicle title loans, or other similar loans.”

4. Makes leaks from financial agencies a crime. Section 392 states that if you work for any federal financial agency, and you disclose any information about bank “stress tests,” then you can be fined up to $5,000.

5. No more federal limits on debt card charges. The Dodd-Frank law has a provision in it that allows the Federal Reserve to set the price on how much a consumer can be charged for using a debit card. Republicans say it’s time for repeal.

Hensarling describes Durbin amendment that caps debit-card swipe fees as "kind of a wealth exchange from bankers to retailers"

6. Audit the Fed. §1010 requires something that some GOP lawmakers have been pressing for in recent years – a yearly audit and transparency for the Federal Reserve. This provision would have the GAO audit the Fed every year.

7. Are they just ‘technical corrections?’ My father taught me many years ago that lobbyists could use “technical corrections” to past tax legislation to make major changes in law, without many people knowing about it. There are a host of such changes in this bill. Most of them look like they are fixing honest typos and clerical errors in the original Dodd-Frank bill. But you never know.

Since I know that very few people reading this right now will take the time to read the summary, the bill and the report – I will print the table of contents of the bill.

Just scrolling through this will give you a pretty good feel as to the scope of the GOP plan. Remember – reading the bill isn’t enough.

TITLE I—ENDING “TOO BIG TO FAIL” AND BANK BAILOUTS<br>Subtitle A—Repeal Of The Orderly Liquidation Authority

Sec. 121. General provisions relating to covered financial corporations.Sec. 122. Liquidation, reorganization, or recapitalization of a covered financial corporation.Sec. 123. Amendments to title 28, United States Code.Subtitle C—Ending Government Guarantees

Sec. 211. Enhancement of civil penalties for securities laws violations.Sec. 212. Updated civil money penalties of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.Sec. 213. Updated civil money penalty for controlling persons in connection with insider trading.Sec. 214. Update of certain other penalties.Sec. 215. Monetary sanctions to be used for the relief of victims.Sec. 216. GAO report on use of civil money penalty authority by Commission.Subtitle B—FIRREA Penalties Modernization

Sec. 221. Increase of civil and criminal penalties originally established in the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989.TITLE III—DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY FROM FINANCIAL REGULATORS AND DEVOLVING POWER AWAY FROM WASHINGTONSubtitle A—Cost-Benefit Analyses

Sec. 361. Bringing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation into the appropriations process.Sec. 362. Bringing the Federal Housing Finance Agency into the appropriations process.Sec. 363. Bringing the National Credit Union Administration into the appropriations process.Sec. 364. Bringing the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency into the appropriations process.Sec. 365. Bringing the non-monetary policy related functions of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System into the appropriations process.Subtitle F—International Processes

Sec. 393. Limitation on donations made pursuant to settlement agreements to which certain departments or agencies are a party.TITLE IV—UNLEASHING OPPORTUNITIES FOR SMALL BUSINESSES, INNOVATORS, AND JOB CREATORS BY FACILITATING CAPITAL FORMATIONSubtitle A—Small Business Mergers, Acquisitions, Sales, And Brokerage Simplification

Sec. 436. Business development company ownership of securities of investment advisers and certain financial companies.Sec. 437. Expanding access to capital for business development companies.Sec. 438. Parity for business development companies regarding offering and proxy rules.Subtitle I—Fostering Innovation

Sec. 871. Commissions review and harmonization of rules relating to the regulation of over-the-counter swaps markets.Sec. 872. Treatment of transactions between affiliates.TITLE IX—REPEAL OF THE VOLCKER RULE AND OTHER PROVISIONS

Sec. 901. Repeals.TITLE X—FED OVERSIGHT REFORM AND MODERNIZATION

Sec. 1001. Requirements for policy rules of the Federal Open Market Committee.Sec. 1002. Federal Open Market Committee blackout period.Sec. 1003. Public transcripts of FOMC meetings.Sec. 1004. Membership of Federal Open Market Committee.Sec. 1005. Frequency of testimony of the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to Congress.Sec. 1006. Vice Chairman for Supervision report requirement.Sec. 1007. Salaries, financial disclosures, and office staff of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.Sec. 1008. Amendments to powers of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.Sec. 1009. Interest rates on balances maintained at a Federal Reserve bank by depository institutions established by Federal Open Market Committee.Sec. 1010. Audit reform and transparency for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.Sec. 1011. Establishment of a Centennial Monetary Commission.TITLE XI—IMPROVING INSURANCE COORDINATION THROUGH AN INDEPENDENT ADVOCATE